Tehama County Supervisors back bill to reverse state ban on hunting dogs

Red Bluff >> The Tehama County Board of Supervisors has lent its support for an assembly bill that would essentially reverse the state's outright ban of the use of dogs to hunt or pursue bears and bobcats.

AB-2205 authored by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, would allow for individual counties to make their own decisions on whether dogs could be used to hunt bears and bobcats within their jurisdiction.

The practice was banned across the state in 2012 by SB-1221.

Tehama County Fish and Game commissioners say they believe the passed senate bill is a step toward the outright ban of all hunting in California.

The Commission asked the Board of Supervisors for its support of AB-2205 after holding its own public meeting April 8 on the subject.

At that meeting Fish and Game commissioners voted unanimously, with one absent, to request support from the board.

Chairman Warren Duke made the formal request at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

Duke said first and foremost Donnelly's bill promoted local control.

The supervisors voted unanimously to forward a letter of support to the Assembly's Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

"Lobbied and passed strictly on uneducated emotions, the bill failed to consider science which documents the need to manage these predators to control their impact on livestock, wildlife and public safety in rural and semi-rural areas," the board's letter reads.

In its own letter to the board, Fish and Game commissioners say the number of bears killed during the 2013 hunting season dropped off by 34 percent from the previous year.

The commissioners warned that if similar declines continue there could be an increase of bear problems with man and wildlife populations such as deer.

"The support from southern California legislators carried this bill despite the opposition of northern legislators where the majority of such hunting takes place," the commission's letter reads.

If passed, AB-2205 would still allow local Fish and Game Commissions to decide hunting season lengths and tag quotas.

In a light-hearted dig at the state changing its department name to Fish and Wildlife, Board Chairman Steve Chamblin asked Duke whether the local commission had changed its own name from game to wildlife.